If at first you do n’t come after , try , try again , the old maxim goes , and patently , that advice counts two-fold if you ’re Facebook , a company that has at this tip tried a cartoonish number of times to install a eminent - capacity internet conduit between California and Hong Kong only to be continually thwarted by the U.S. government .
On Wednesday , theWall Street Journalreported that Facebook had scrap plans for the latest loop of its proposed transmission line , thanks in gravid part to jump on press from U.S. national - security officials who worry that Hong Kong ’s legal autonomy is increasingly in jeopardy .
“ Due to on-going concerns from the U.S. politics about unmediated communications connection between the United States and Hong Kong , we have decided to withdraw our FCC app , ” a Facebook spokeswoman said in a program line . “ We face forrard to working with all the parties to reconfigure the system to meet the concerns of the U.S. government . ”
Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Staff (Getty Images)
While Facebook told the U.S. Federal Communications Commission that it had retreat its most recent build software program for the Hong Kong - Americas labor — also known as the HKA — it’snot the first timethe societal - media giant has endeavored to lay down a vulcanized fiber - optic cable connection between the two regions . In September 2020 , the Trump administration put the kibosh on a freestanding design that put forth between Facebook and Google to construct an 8,000 - mile - recollective broadband transmission line between Hong Kong and Los Angeles .
That undertaking — known as the Pacific Light Cable internet ( PLCN ) — had been first advise in 2016 , and had been fully build out with the design of tie in the U.S. to Taiwan and the Philippines in addition to Hong Kong before it stall . presently , builders are still assay permission to activate the subsist data links so as to bring the cable online .
As pro - democracy objection raged on in Hong Kong in 2020 , the Chinese government crack down on the special administrative region by implementing new regulations on its cyberspace as part of a sweeping newnational surety law . In July , tech titans including Google , Facebook and Twitter announced that they had suspended processing postulation for substance abuser datum from Hong Kong law of nature enforcement agency due largely to concerns that portion out the data could amount to a violation of human rights .
“ We believe freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and support the right of people to express themselves without fear for their refuge or other rebound , ” a Facebook spokeswomansaidat the time .
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